1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a guard that prevents the destruction and vandalism of the keypad of a telephone. Specifically, this invention is a keypad guard mated into an upper housing guard to form a telephone guard for a telephone upper housing. The keypad guard is of sufficient strength to prevent damage to the telephone keypad, and prevents access to the money in a coin vault of a pay telephone via an opening created by destruction of the keypad.
Over a prolonged period of time, a large amount of coin money is retained within the vault of a pay telephone. Due to their normally isolated and unprotected location, pay telephones are the subject of frequent vandalism attempts. Vandals use a variety of means to gain access to the pay telephone vaults, including smashing through the keypad, which is typically positioned within the pay telephone directly above the open-top coin vault drawer. The present invention is directed to preventing vandalism to the telephone keypad, and to preventing access to money in the pay telephone coin vault by protecting the keypad assembly.
2. Related Art
Several inventions aimed to prevent the vandalism of pay telephone keypads are known to the prior art. Illustrative of such inventions are U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,057 issued to Anello and U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,136 issued to McGough. Both patents teach the use of embossed mini-housings around each push button of the keypad. McGough requires retrofitting the keypad with L-shaped buttons that afford a smaller side surface area to minimize lateral force from a detrimental source. Anello teaches the use of full length and width double face plates, which adds additional weight and cost of material to the pay telephone without affording significant additional keypad protection over a standard face plate.
Other prior art known in the field of guarding pay telephones includes single piece face plates. Prior art face plates are typically made of light metal or heavy plastic, which affords minimal security protection to the telephone.
It would thus be beneficial to the prior art to provide a telephone keypad guard constructed of high strength material that prevents a vandal from damaging the telephone keypad, and from smashing out the keypad to gain access to the money in the pay telephone coin vault.
The prior art would also benefit from a keypad guard that is relatively inexpensive, simple to manufacture, has a secure exterior appearance and requires minimal retrofitting of the existing pay telephone.